Wayne K.
Ralph scoped out the work and was very knowledgeable. My main concern with the existing gutters was that they were starting to pull away from the roof because the ends of the wooden rafters of the house were deteriorated to the point that the nails were too loose. Even if I hammered the nails back in, a light rain would easily cause the gutters to pull away again and sag.
Ralph pointed out additional issues, including poor drainage, which was causing long-term damage to the integrity of the house and surrounding concrete. He pointed out how you could see sky between the roof and the old gutters. He proposed new positions for the downspouts to improve drainage, and also suggested the hidden hangars, which would eliminate the need to use nails or replace the rafters. We ultimately went with Brothers because other estimators would have required replacing and painting the rafters, which would have led to a delay in installing the actual gutters.
On the day of the installation, Ralph called to reschedule because one of their fabrication machines jammed… while trying to unjam the machine, they ended up breaking it. Replacement parts were not available until the following week. These things happen, so I
did my best to be understanding… nevertheless, I had to telecommute two days instead of just one, which had a negative effect on my own job.
I don’t know much about gutters, so I asked more than my share of silly questions. Ralph got a bit testy. He scoffed at my idea of test-driving the gutters by pouring actual water down them. This is So Cal and we’re in the middle of a serious drought… I didn’t want to have to wait potentially several months to find out if there were any flaws. He cited several times his many years of experience as a reason enough for a physical test drive of his product to be unnecessary.
Also, it was important for my wife that he personally be there, at least initially, to kick off the installation. Perhaps that’s unusual, but he did agreed to do this. However, he never showed up and left some explanation message as to why.
Once the job got started, the crew was very professional and did a great job. (Unfortunately, the overall professional rating has to be a “B” because of the previous two paragraphs.) Very pleased with the outcome – the gutters are beautiful. It did in fact rain a couple of weeks after the installation, and they performed perfectly. The ground next to the walls of the house remained bone dry.
This is kind of irrelevant, but I must share an unexpected moment of pure and utter joy that was a direct result of our new gutters. Now, I need to explain that my neighbor’s cat loves to poo in my front yard. When I first discussed the problem with my neighbor, he just shrugged it off as though it was not his responsibility. Since direct confrontation didn’t seem to be effective, my passive-aggressive solution was to scoop it up and leave it in a pile next to his driveway. While the growing pile was still on my side of the property line, I had hoped that my neighbor would at least be able to partake in the visuals and aromatics of it all. Such was the state of things for the past few years. Well, the morning after the first rain, I ran outside to see how the gutters did. Again, they did exactly what the were supposed to do. But to my surprise and delight, the newly positioned downspout also managed to wash the entire pile of poo clean away, and right onto my neighbor’s driveway. HOORAY FOR BROTHERS!!